Everything is in the question: we’ve all heard, during the pandemic, or at other times, of planes flying without any passenger to keep their slots and bet on future purchases of plane tickets to remain competitive. If many people decided to all of a sudden stop flying, what would it change in terms of the number of planes taking off? Would it be an effective solution to reduce the impact of the travel/flying industry? Thanks in advance!
EDIT: thanks a lot for all your answers and examples, this is very interesting, you’re the best! <3
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The assumption during the pandemic was that the lower passenger counts were _temporary_. Airlines were willing to operate at a loss in order to keep their operations the same because they believed (correctly) that people would return to flying shortly after the pandemic was over. Reducing then rebuilding operations was calculated to be more expensive than just continuing to operate as normal in the short term.
If they believed the drop would be permanent, they would not maintain operations at the current scale. They would reduce the number of flights offered and scale back their operations to accommodate the new normal of passenger load.
By way of analogy, if your boss tells you that this month, your paycheck is going to be 50% of what you expected, you aren’t going to sell your home or your car – you are going to dip into savings to ride out the month of lower income. However, if he tells you that _every_ paycheck is going to be 50% lower, you’ll make lifestyle changes.
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